


Fuck being S.P.E.C.I.A.L.

by words_savedme



Series: Some Things Never Change [2]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 3
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-12
Updated: 2018-08-12
Packaged: 2019-06-26 04:08:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15655458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/words_savedme/pseuds/words_savedme
Summary: Everyone says S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats can change, but Lone knows better.





	Fuck being S.P.E.C.I.A.L.

They tell everyone S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats don’t matter, that they don’t determine who a person can be, just the skills their genetics hands them. That they can grow stronger and smarter through hard work, and that glasses help. Some things never change. 

Lone is born with particularly odd stats. Most vault dwellers are less likable than a malfunctioning Mister Handyman, and their eyes aren’t great, either, because the fluorescents eventually make everything a little hazy. Vault dwellers can, however, lift one hundred pounds without breaking a sweat, and tend to be able to guess which side of a coin will land face down without going wrong. 

Lone knows she isn’t from the vault, not really. A part of her itches for the wastes, wants to feel rain and snow and sun on her skin until she’s red and burnt like the books say she’ll become. She wants to be able to run from trouble instead of having to fight her way through and talk guards down from arresting her. Some things never change.

Strength: She’s born with three for strength. That’s 2 lower than any other dweller has had in twenty years. She tries to lift boxes every chance she gets in the clinic, but it doesn’t help. All her body seems to do is eat food up and stretch it across her ruler-like frame. 

When she leaves the vault, she gets into a fist fight with a saloon owner by the name of Moriarty. He knocks her out—even though he claims he didn’t use a switchblade, although the cut in her side begs to differ—after three punches. She wakes up in a clinic, sore and tired, and curses under her breath. 

Some things never change.

Perception: Her perception was seven. Odd for a vault dweller, but no one ever said anything because Jonas’ was six, and there were pictures of his birth inside the clinic. Examples for pregnant moms, apparently.

In the vault, Lone eavesdrops. She eavesdrops so often that eventually she learns the Overseer’s password, Amata, and hacks into all security terminals and re-programs the guards’ shifts so she has two hours every Sunday and Tuesday to wander into the reactor level without hiding behind crates. 

In the wastes, Lone snipes bandits from yards away. She can smell Deathclaw nests and hear gunfire as well as Dogmeat. Sometimes she can even see the dead bodies on the ceiling where no one else bothers to look, and wishes she were blind. Lone eavesdrops and learns of her father’s whereabouts without having to ask around. 

Endurance: Lone is born with eight endurance. In the vault, she runs laps during baseball games and runs from guards for hours at a time. Some nights, when she gets bored, she runs to Butch’s apartment, knocks on his door, and runs away until he catches up to her—or when she decides to stop running—and throws her over his shoulder until she says she’s sorry for waking him up, even though they both know she isn’t, and neither is he. Some things never change.

In the wastes, Lone runs. She doesn’t carry much, only a few guns, ammo, and water, but she runs from town to town without stopping because sometimes the animals scare her and sometimes she gets tired of only having herself to talk to. In the wastes, Lone outruns bandits until they’re so tired they have to stop chasing her and set up camp for the night. In the wastes, Lone runs.

Charisma: Lone has six for charisma. In the vault, this is two more than almost every other person, besides the Overseer. Even her own father had three. 

Lone talks her way out of trouble. She sweet talks the guards, and convinces her father to let her keep every item she steals from lockers. She reassures the patients they’ll be okay, even if they won’t, and she smiles enough for Mr. Brotch to complain about it—jokingly, however, because Brotch loves Lone like his own child.

In the wastes, six isn’t much. She gets ripped off with merchants, except for the few that feel bad for a young kid like her out alone, and all leaders of the towns think she’s a rotten seed. She tries to listen to caravans and how they barter, to use her perception to increase her charisma, but even in the wastes she still stumbles over her words and fidgets too much to lie—some things never change. 

The guards in the vault never noticed, but people in the wastes can spot inexperience a mile away. Lone decides she’ll just have to save every cap she finds if she wants to survive.

Intelligence: Her intelligence is eight. Lone is good at hacking terminals she can’t find passwords for, and she doesn’t study like the other kids in her class. She spends her free time reading books she finds in the lower levels, and she can learn how to heal after watching her dad do it himself. 

In the wastes, Lone hacks into computers with the snap of her fingers. She figures out plans, too, plans the Brotherhood uses against the Enclave. Lone knows where people will go and when they’ll get there, and she knows how to heal her bullet wounds and where to place the stimpak injections. Lone wishes she were smart enough to build a time travel machine, but some things never change.

Agility: Lone’s agility is seven. In the vault, she hides from guards behind doors and walks silently, quieter than every other dweller. She sneaks past her dad at night without getting caught, and sits with Butch in the reactor level every week in a small corner where there’s magazines and her B.B. gun. 

In the wastes, Lone steals. She figures if she can’t barter she has to find ammo elsewhere, so at night—and sometimes in the day, if she’s desperate—she crouches down, grabs bullets, and leaves. Most merchants don’t realize the door ever even opened. 

In the wastes, Lone creeps past Harkness at night and grabs Butch’s favorite books, and she reads them to him in Rivet City when neither of them can sleep. He nuzzles into her neck and pulls her on top of him, and they fall asleep after a few chapters. Some things never change.

Luck: Lone has bad luck. Ever since she was little, she’s been caught between fights and blamed for things she didn’t do, like setting fire to the Macks’ oven and taking Old Miss Palmer’s lotion. Lone’s jumpsuit zippers always broke, and she got hit by foul balls more than a few times. Once, when her and Butch were in the basement, a tub of Flour fell on them.

In the wastes, Lone gets caught between mutants and bandits. She runs out of ammo and has to use grenades, which sometimes fail to explode, and often gets wet socks from puddles she can’t see in the dark. In the wastes, Lone doesn’t have luck, and she figures her father doesn’t, either, because he dies.

Some things never change.


End file.
